Channing Tatum has been talking up the possibility of a Magic Mike sequel since last summer, but it’s been quite a few months now since we’ve had a real update. Nevertheless, Steven Soderbergh assures fans that not only is the film still making active progress, it’s actually “getting pretty far along” now with a “really hilarious” concept.

And whenever it finally hits screens, you can be sure your favorite Xquisite dancer will make a reappearance — according to Soderbergh, the next film will bring back all of the characters. Hit the jump to read his quotes.

While he won’t direct the sequel, he revealed to Pride Source (via The Playlist) that he remains very much involved with the project. “I want to help. I have some proprietary feelings about it, obviously,” he said. “I want to make sure it gets done and done well, so we meet every couple of weeks to talk about where it’s going.” Those conversations seem to be going quite well, based on Soderbergh’s latest update:

We actually just had a meeting about it the other day. It’s getting pretty far along. They’ve got a good idea. There were some stories and events that Channing lived through that we just couldn’t fit in the first one. One of them is a really hilarious and very cinematic idea that we reluctantly didn’t put in the first film, because it was such a big idea you could build a whole film out of it – but we didn’t want to build that film out of it. It’s perfect for this, though.

Tatum has previously hinted that the follow-up could be a road trip comedy, but it’s not clear whether Soderbergh is talking about that same idea here. Whatever it is, Soderbergh stresses that the new plotline is “not a retread,” and promises that “there will be more time spent with the characters — all of them.”

There’s still no set timetable for the film, and considering how packed Tatum’s schedule is it could be a while before things can really get going. Right now, the film doesn’t even have a director, although Soderbergh’s longtime assistant director Gregory Jacobsremains one strong possibility.

Or maybe, if the development process takes long enough, they can just snap up Soderbergh when he comes back from his “retirement.” (I mean, probably not, but we can dream.) The filmmaker admits that he plans to come back to movies eventually.

In terms of movies, it’s going to be a break. I don’t know how extended. I’m just taking a break from that specific kind of work for a while to see if I can tear everything down and rebuild it. See if I can come back different.